DARDANELLE — Sand Lizards head coach Josh Price just wants the football team to do its part during Friday’s homecoming game against the Arkansas Baptist Eagles.

Homecoming is a good experience, Price said — if the football team wins.

“If the football team doesn’t do their job at 7 p.m. on Friday, then it’s all for nothing,” he said.

Price said the winless Eagles (0-5, 0-2 4A-4 Conference) are not a team to be overlooked. In fact, Price believes they are the best offensive team the Sand Lizards (5-0, 2-0) will play all season.

“They have a good quarterback and a slew of good receivers,” Price said. “So our secondary and linebackers will have to do a good job.”

Price admitted his secondary has struggled at times.

“You’re always worried about it,” he said. “This year, it is going to be a team effort. We have to get in a good pass rush. They will complete some passes, and when they do, we will have to tackle them. They are going to have to throw it because I think we can stop their run game pretty handily.”

With spread offenses like Arkansas Baptist, Price said eliminating yards after the catch was key.

“If they throw for six yards, it can only be six yards,” he said. “It can’t be 15 because someone missed a tackle.”

Dardanelle only allowed 91 total yards to Clinton last week — only 29 yards while the starters were on the field through three quarters. Caden Brown had 13 tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss during the effort.

Pair that against an Eagles defense Price believes will be unable to stop the Dardanelle offense, and Price said he is feeling confident.

“As long as everyone does what they are supposed to do,” he added. “They are a high-powered offensive team, but I think they will struggle to stop us. But we don’t just want to win. We want to learn and get better. We will see a lot of these spread types of teams the rest of the year and in the playoffs. I think we can get in enough formations to give them problems. I think our offensive line and skill kids are good enough we could get into another situation like Clarksville.”

The Sand Lizards scored 69 points on Clarksville in the first half, but Price said said he wasn’t referencing the scoreboard.

“I just mean we should be able to move the football a lot if we don’t create turnovers,” he said. “And their defense is designed to do just that.”

The Eagles created four turnovers against Pottsville and six against Pulaski Robinson.

“Some of those turnovers were on special teams,” he said. “They’d do a little pooch kick. Against Clinton we were terrible on special teams. I think after last week’s game, we should come out fired up and read to play. We weren’t sharp. We went through the motions a little bit. Hopefully, we come out mentally sharper and playing together.”